Camellia Series from Ooshuu Kiln

The Village of the Secret Kilns Online Pottery Shop is constantly being updated. We've added a new Camellia Series page from Ooshuu Kiln. Check out the updated shop and read our kiln profiles.

NEW! Customized Japanese Pottery! Start Imagining Now...

Several years ago I gave Maeda Keisuke's lovely cobalt blue and white sansui "his and hers" lidded tea cups to two friends in Canada who were getting married. Now these cups are wonderful as is, but the "homerun" aspect of this gift was that I had asked Maeda-san to paint the couple's names on the cups. True to Maeda-san's character, instead of simply painting their names on the lids or underneath, he actually worked the names into the scene on these cups. The cups depict a coastal fishing village, and he had painted tiny signposts sticking out of the ground with a name on each one. My friends loved the gift and especially the way their names had been incorporated into the cups' design.

Recently, thinking back on my Canadian friends' reactions to their unique tea cups, I thought why not take this a step further? Our close relationships with Imari ceramicists enables us to approach them on your behalf to discuss the possibility of unique customized pieces made for you. This could range from simply writing a child's name on a cup, all the way to complete made-to-order shapes and designs.

Although we cannot guarantee that the ceramicists will accept your idea, my experience has been that these artists are open to experimentation.

Contact us now to discuss the possibility of unique Japanese pottery and porcelain made for you.

Dave

My little pottery garden

There is something I have been meaning to tell you about for some time now. For 3 weeks, maybe more. But it involves me spending some time outside and, in Japan, in the middle of rainy season, no one spends any more time outside than is absolutely necessary.

You see, loving The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael and fine eating, I have planted a small herb garden. Nothing particularly impressive, but it is mine and I am, never the less, quite proud of it. I have been wanting to put a picture of the garden up but also, more closer to the occasionally kept to theme of this blog, I wanted to show you some of the pottery I have been finding. You see, the garden is in the front yard of my house. A house that was built by the owner of one of the larger pottery shops on the main drag in down town Arita many years ago. Right up until literally the day before I moved in, hundreds, if not thousands of pieces of ceramics were stored here.

When I first moved in and started clearing the out of control foliage that I can still bairly call a “yard”, I would often find cracked or smashed pieces of “yakimono” laying on the ground. Mostly small fragments but many large items as well. Occasionally, I even came across ones that were still completely intact (I found a couple of my favorite sake cups clearing out a dead bush). I thought that I had removed most of the discarded porcelain, but now that I am digging and tilling the earth, I am stating to find hundreds more pieces. Digging a hole to shove a basil plant in often feels more like an archeology dig than farming. I try to keep that kind of fun mindset cause if I didn't, pulling a little piece of pottery out of my garden every 10 seconds would get really tired really quickly.

But it is fun ... sometimes I recognize a fragment as the work of a kiln or potter I know. Often I find myself holding a tiny piece and wondering what the original object was. Once in a while I even look at a design or pattern and wonder who would make/buy something so ugly ...

Mark

Mr. Usui's Amazing Old Imari Collection

Thanks to Mark for doing the lion's share of writing recently.

Thought I would post a picture and some comments about my recent trip to see the Old Imari porcelain exhibit at the Kyushu National Museum.

This was my first trip to the museum, and the building made quite a first impression. Tucked into the woods on a hillside just outside Dazaifu City, this massive building was built to look like an ocean wave. The museum's pamphlet touts its environmental credentials with solar panels and rainwater collection systems and the like, but what struck me most was the fact they used no less than three different "seismic isolation systems" in its construction to prevent damage to the cultural assets inside. Apparently the "big one" could hit Dazaifu City directly, and nary a vase would wobble nor a wall hanging sway. It looks like they used the wood contents of a small tropical rainforest on the interior, but they claim they only used trees that were "thinned" (Is that good?).

Anyway, after paying up 1300 yen at the door (ouch!) I took the escalator up to the 3rd floor and entered the special exhibition hall. The exhibit was expansive, displaying the entire collection of a Mr. Fumio Usui, who lived in Paris and collected works of Old Imari from across Europe. In 17th and 18th century Europe, it was popular for the upper class to decorate rooms with oriental ceramics.

The explanations started with a description of the first Dutch East India Company ship, the Vogelzang, loaded with 5,748 pieces of Imari porcelain that set sail from Nagasaki on October 15, 1659, on through the boom export years of the following decade, leading to the eventual decline of the industry from cheaper Chinese competition and changing conditions in Europe.

The pieces were displayed in chronological order, from the earliest underglaze cobalt-blue wares, to the development of designs using overglaze polychrome enamels, and eventually to gold overlay.

A piece that sticks in my mind is a porcelain shaving bowl, a kind of high-class bib, with a notch cut out of the rim to place your chin, and two holes for a string to suspend the bowl under your face.

All in all it was a beautiful and informative Old Imari porcelain exhibit, and a nice afternoon trip to a spectacular musem. On the return road with the sun getting low in the sky, I put on some tunes, put the windows down, and let the warm breeze in the car. I thought to myself that while we usually celebrate the work of contemporary ceramicists on our website, it's nice to see where and how this beautiful Japanese ceramics tradition began.

Dave

Daigoro Dragons

A few weeks ago I wrote that I had been out to see the good folks at Daigoro Gama in Okawachiyama, Imari. I recently noticed that Dave has been adding more of their products on the Secret Kilns site and man do they look good.

I marvel at the thought and attention to detail that is put into every piece. This dragon is a great example. Sure, the dragon is as impressive as it is foreboding, but look closely at the porcelain waves jetting up from underneath. What an exquisite marriage of design and motion.

The Daigoro kiln produces so much impressive ceramics, but I think it is their dragons that set them apart for me. If you have a look at the vases in the Secret Kiln shop, you can see what is probably my favorite Daigoro piece, an unbelievably detailed vase featuring two fierce dragons. Love it!

Mark